Mismanagement of employees is causing disengagement at work

A new breed of employees is threatening to disrupt the workplace by undermining organisational goals and damaging the brand when it comes to attracting new employees.

These employees, said Jim Harter, Chief Scientist for Gallup’s workplace management and wellbeing practices, are not only detached from the organisation but also vocal about how they are emotionally against the organisation.

Harter was speaking to Business Insider after the recent release of Gallup’s 2023 State of the Global Workplace report, which identified almost one in every five employees (18%) as being “loud quitters” who are “actively disengaged” at work, as opposed to “quiet quitters”, who are simply “not engaged”.

Reasons for employees to loud quit include dissatisfaction from being mismatched to a role, a loss of trust with the employer and more pertinently, mismanagement, Gallup identified. “The cause of this loud quitting, or even loud quitting, is really primarily in how people are managed,” said Harter.

With more than half (51%) of global employees actively looking for another job or watching for openings, organisations should be concerned. Particularly, actively disengaged employees are 42% more likely to be actively looking or watching for openings in comparison to engaged employees.

READ: A thriving workplace culture starts with total wellbeing for all employees

To foster more effective management in the remote, hybrid, and post-pandemic workforce, Gallup recommended that managers engage in one meaningful conversation with each employee once per week. These meeting, which can last between 15-30 minutes, should focus on recognition, collaboration, goals and priorities, and strengths of employees.